Friday, November 09, 2012

Through the looking glass

They finally remembered me.
Yup, you guessed it, I have now been admitted.
Which is probably kinda good as the first lot of my culture results came back in (take a sample of the stuff I cough up and grow it in a lab to see what's in it.) And I have high levels of staph bacteria in it. Have to wait an see if anything else grows.

After a bit of faffing about, they finally got the cannula in me and I am now on IV meds. With a bit of luck, my chest should start clearing up a bit now and hopefully my energy levels will rise. Today I just feel exhausted, but it is still a big change in routine. I am never awake at 6am for example when they come set my first lot of meds up. Not to mention the barrage of tests and physio. But, hopefully this will improve things.

It felt so strange coming on to the ward the first time. The ward is an odd one, its divided into two sides, with rooms down the middle used for the nurses and bathrooms. I am usually on the right side, but this time I am on the left side. The room is identical, but mirrored. So everything is the wrong way. Through the looking glass type of thing.

I have also had my MRI scan. The tube was ok to stay in as I had it changed to a plastic one last week. So after a couple of phone calls to check, everything went fine. I would have had problems if i had still had my silver tube in. They are not the nicest of scans, like being in a small box, but I mostly just had to lie still which was fine by me. They put headphones on me and strapped me down, which was a bit of an odd feeling. Usually they would talk to you while you are in the scanner and ask if you are ok, but I could not answer as my arms were pinned down, so that was different  Over the headphones they had music on, a queen album and the first song playing was we are the champions. Think my organs are trying to tell me something?

Its amazing how different things are on this ward. Most of my time in hospital is spent on surgical wards, but this is medical. Surgical, the staff kinda see you, help you get better, then send you on your way with the view that things will continue to improve. Here a lot more thought goes into things, which is making me feel better already. There only little things, but when someone else brings them up, you dont feel so much like a fraud or a complainer.

A small example is we were reviewing my medication and discussing nebs, rather than just saying do this one and add this one, they were actually saying things like, we dont want to just add them in as that ties you up for a lot of time running the treatments, leaving you much more limited during the day. Another member of staff was discussing with me about mixing with people outside of my immediate family. She is the only one who has really ever asked about how I get on at home and if I have a social life. There have been many little things like that. Asking about tiredness, pain, ability to do things. It makes a huge change and I already feel much calmer for it.

This is going to sound odd, but my room here just looks so medical based. Yeh I know it is a hospital room, but so much has changed since I was last here. My stuff is mostly stored behind cupboard doors at home, but here everything is in one place and on sight, si I guess that adds to the feeling. Between my IV pump and humidifier  My nebuliser and addition items to run nebulised anti bitoics. Suction and trach stuff such as dressings and ties. Plus medications and the likes. It kinda makes me reliase just how much work I do put in to keeping well. So when I berate myself, I know now that I am still working on things, I am doing what I can.






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